How to Have Your Best Year Ever | Dr. John Maxwell

[Applause] Happy New Year I mean we might as well be the first ones huh don't you think that to say that what a great privilege is for me to share with you today I'm very excited and we're gonna talk about you having your best year ever in 2019 now as we close out this year there are literally on all of our campuses I'm sure thousands of people would raise their hand say this was my greatest year it was just a it was a banner year and I bet there'd also be thousands of people raise their hand and say I am so glad this year is about over yeah sometimes the sometimes our favorite verses this too shall pass and it's how many how many of you how many of you are ready for a new year huh you're ready for a new year okay and here's why okay let me ask you this how many of you are ready not only for a new year but how many of you are ready for the best year come on huh best year best year you have ever had I mean this we're ready for it and what I'm excited about is is I'm going to share with you in today's lesson I'm going to share with you how to have your best year in fact I'll guarantee it if you'll just if you'll just do what I'm about to share it's just going to set you up for an incredible 2019 now so the good news is what I'm gonna share is simple it's reachable every one of you can achieve this okay every one of you so this is it beyond anybody that that's the good news the bad news is that it's so simple that you're going to almost think it really can't make that kind of a difference but what I've learned a long time ago is that some of the most beautiful things in life are just simple things that if we do it just tweaks us and makes us live an incredible better life and so I'm very excited about sharing with you so are you are you ready - I know I know you're ready you're I mean you you're ready to write this down wanna give you the secret of having a great year I know you're ready but I'm a little concerned about the person on your left they they they don't seem to be quite as sharp as you you notice that also haven't you how you you've really noticed that so I I know you're ready but are they ready that's the question huh so look at your neighbor and say are you ready go ahead and ask that here we go if you want 2019 to be the year that you really want to be here is here so here's the secret of making it a great year every day serve someone every day every day add value to people every day serve one every day live the intentional life of doing for others sometimes what they cannot do for themselves and if you will put people first and add value to them and serve them it becomes absolutely amazing what you and I are going to have and achieve how we're going to help people and in return how it comes back to us Benjamin Franklin said this no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of someone else if you're if you're helping someone else lift a load in your life you become a very useful person Mahatma Ghandi said that the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others but perhaps on this kind of a theme like my favorite quote is from Albert Schweitzer who said I don't know what your destiny will be but one thing I do know the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve but he's right on the happiest people are not always the most successful people but they're the ones who serve the best I met a lot of unhappy successful people haven't you but I've never met never met an unhappy person that gave their life of serving and giving and adding value to other people Martin Luther King jr. said everybody can be great because every I can serve only one time only one time the gospel says it recorded that Jesus said follow me and follow my example at one time and that's when he was washing the feet serving the disciples and I wanna I just want to talk to you too today about how you and I can just intentionally begin begin to do this okay in my younger years of forming myself as a young leader I kind of thought that what leaders did was get everybody to join their team and you know cast the vision and so that's why I was doing it and then and then I asked in about 27 I heard Zig Ziglar say who became a great friend of mine Zig said if you will help people get what they want then you'll receive everything that you need in life and when I heard that I thought oh I I've got this turned around I need to focus on people I need to put others first and if I help them then all the stuff that I'm going to need I'm going to get as a return and about the same time I read a book by Eugene ha Becker called the other side of leadership he became also a wonderful friend of mine and Eugene said in the in his book the true leader serves serves people and their best interest true leaders are motivated by loving concern rather than personal glory so if Jesus were here and and we would say to him what's important if what he would say to us is he would say valuing people is important and not only valuing people but serving people and he would just say to all of us if you want to have a great 2019 value people serve people so we're gonna we're gonna look at we're gonna look at a couple biblical examples here then kind of really get some good understanding under our belt about what does it mean to really intensely serve people the first story is is where Jesus is going into the Upper Room and and the disciples are all arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom and now who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom but who's going to sit the closest to Jesus and so they're back and forth and and they're talking and basically the less Jesus listens he realizes that what they've got is they got what they call hiko horizontal thinking they're they're thinking about am I better than you and where would I position and he wanted to get him on vertical thinking so so he started talking to them in and the passages on Luke 22 it's on your screen within minutes they were bickering over who them would end up the greatest but Jesus intervened Kings liked to throw their weight around and people in authority like to give themselves fancy titles and then this is the key here here's the key phrase it's not going to be that way with you let the senior among you become like the junior let the leader act the part of the servant now who would you rather be the one who eats the dinner or the one who serves a dinner you'd rather eat and be served right here he goes but I've taken my place among you as one who serves this amazing isn't Jesus Son of God has taken his place among us as one who serves when you biblically begin to understand serving people there are three things that just you'd kind of that you kind of understand and come to grips with the number one is that a servant puts first of all service over status Philippians chapter 2 don't push your way to the front don't sweet-talk your way to the top put yourself aside and help others get ahead don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage and here's the key Britpop phrase forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand you know what he basically saying is if you're gonna really serve people you got to forget yourself now I know a lot of people they're the exact opposite they're full of themselves you know people like that huh how many of you are sitting beside somebody just like that don't go and and when you're full of yourself when I'm full of myself it's all I can think about it's me and the moment that it gets there it's all of a sudden everything's gonna be everything's gonna be centered about Who I am where I am what's happening to me and and we all have to fight that because we are basically selfish we're born selfish and the illustration I defect I've used to here before if you don't think you're selfish just let me ask you a simple question when somebody takes a group picture of you and you see that picture for the first time who is the first person huh who do you look for I mean first person you go right to yourself don't you I mean my gosh you you pass those other seven people you go there and let me tell you what if it's if you look good you go great picture great picture great you've judged the whole picture on how you looked you did it you haven't even looked at the right okra and if you don't if you don't look at oh do it again do it again do it again take another picture today everything paces his face did I look good this is this is who we are one of the reasons white living an intentional life is so important is we if we are not intentional we will be selfish you know we got to work at this we've got it if 2019 is gonna be incredible year you're gonna have to look at the year and say yourself what can I do to add value to people instead of what our people want to do to add value to me what can I do to serve people instead of I wonder who in this next year is going to serving we're going to have to do a complete mind shift in that whole process service over status but but a servant of servant secondly puts character over comfort in other words they do the right thing whether they feel like doing it or not you know they're two kinds of people those people that do what is right and then feel good and there are some people who want to feel good before they do what is right and if you want to feel good before you ever do what is right you're an owl not do a lot of things right because we'll let our emotions control it but but the moment that we said no I'm gonna but I'm going to do the right thing and then I'll let the emotion I'll let the emotion fall key character over comfort a couple weeks ago all right after Thanksgiving I was I was teaching on the Good Samaritan and the message on perspectives about possessions and and as we know the story the Good Samaritan the man who was robbed he was on the side of the road he was half dead the Good Samaritan went over and took care of him you know took care of his wounds put him on a donkey took him to to a place to recover and pay for it took a and the whole thing that is huge is is that the Good Samaritan was willing to be inconvenienced that now here's the key if you and I are going to make 2019 a great year of Serbian people let me tell you the first thing it's gonna happen to you first thing's gonna is we're going to be in convenience because when you have to serve people when you serve people they don't do it on your time schedule now in a good Samaritan story what hey the priest and the Levite what they do they saw they saw the guy that was robbed half-dead and one that they saw him and they went to the other side of the road and they walked by didn't they they they you know they they they not only walked by and they walked by as far as they could get from him and you know why that you do you know why they didn't stop then one be inconvenienced they're going somewhere they're going down to Jericho and but you know and now let me tell you what because they were good religious people here's what I'm sure they did I'm sure they prayed for him [Music] yeah yeah but don't you think so I I think I think as they went on their own way not taking care of you at all there's an old by God Oh Lord helping healing helping bow send somebody to serve Oh Lord or is it an amazing Christians can make prayer the biggest cop-out sometimes we need that kind of shut up and serve just just hey just character over comfort and if this is going to be a year where you serve I will promise you I promise myself we will be at times inconvenience we just will and Jesus you know he he said look let me explain this way if you want to save your life what do you have to do you have to lose it yeah and if you want to be lifted up you have to humble yourself and if you want to be the greatest you got to be the servant if you want to be first you got to be lat if you got to live you got to die and I look to that I said well I want to save my life I want to be lifted up I got all these things so one he says well you've got to go to the other side another thing that servant leaders do is they they they they put we over me they think of the big picture and and they think of others not so much of themselves okay in John chapter 13 this is okay we got it we got a camp here for a few moments so on the screen jesus knew that the father had put him in complete charge of everything and he came from God and he was on his way back to God so he got up from the supper table set aside his robe put on an apron and then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feed that the disciples drying them with his Hebert now we know this story this is a story of Jesus washing the disciples feet well the first thing that pops out to me is this very it's amazing in the most difficult our of Jesus life this is this is a crucial time literally in just a few hours from this situation he's going to be Angus ebony he's he's going to find out that he has to go to the cross and he's gonna have he's got he's gonna have the Romans come and take him he's gonna go to mockery of a trial he's going to be beat I mean he's he's good he's coming into his most difficult period that him on earth and in this most difficult time what is he doing he is serving other people what this is huge and he takes a base in the water hey watch their feet now interestingly enough in the in the Gospels there's only two times that a basement water has ever mentioned and it happens to be just connected these two stories right here Pilate remember when when the people brought Jesus before Pilate and were wanting him to sentence him to crucifixion and the press kept getting they kept pressuring him and finally remember what he finally says okay look he said I did you know that I find I think he's innocent I don't say thing wrong with him but but if you want to do this then he said bring the basin of water and in a took his hands in that basin water and he washed his hands and excused himself of the responsibility of what he was about to do now catch me I call this basin theology Pilate took a basin of water and put himself first Jesus took a basin of water and wash feet and put others first that's the difference between how a christ-follower thinks and how a person who lives for self thinks it's an entirely different world and think about this you talk about it a great test as a servant leader he's washing the disciples feet and as he's doing it being God knowing all things he's washing the feet of one who will betray him one who will deny him who will lie about him and will curse about him and every one of the people's feet that he will wash in his deepest darkest hour will forsake him and run and what's he doing he's serving he's washing their feet every year in November we have at this exchange of this event called exchange for leaders we go to a different City it's an amazing event and we give them leadership experience this is so in November I had him in Los Angeles and one of the places I wanted to take them I wanted them to I really wanted to open their eyes and really get them to see it was a pretty amazing story so I took them to the dream Center out in Los Angeles that is led by a longtime friend of mine Matthew Barnett and here's the story it's a great story Matthew Barnett decided to go to Los Angeles and care for the poor and give his life in the worst area of Lhasa a lot of drugs a lot of poverty a lot of crime and he had no money and yet he wanted he wanted to start his ministry there so here's what I did he literally on the sidewalk on busy sidewalk in this poor area of Los Angeles he put a desk in a chair he didn't have an office he didn't have ability and people would come by and they'd say what are you doing he said well this is my office and and I'm here to care for people and meet needs do you have something that can help you win and people begin to come around and gather round and make the long story short now this was several years ago 20 years ago probably now today if you're in Los Angeles the the the the hospital Los Angeles's you could see on the hill that City of Angels Hospital now that's that's the dream center and hundreds of drug addicts are taken care of in and met and and and and he send this incredible minister so I had all these leaders there to stretch their mind and and stretch their heart a little bit and so I had Matthew talk for a moment here's what he said he said he talked about the fact that they were a bridge between people that were poor and getting he had lost their whole dignity and value basically they were the bridge to help them get back their dignity in value in their health and and and all these things and then he said something very interesting about a bridge he said if we are to be a bridge for others to cross over into a better life we will get walked on I'm just letting you think about that for a moment we'll get blocked on okay there's another passage of Scripture once you're looking cuz we're learning how to serve so we could do 2019 better because I want you to see this passage because when we serve others here's what's beautiful we serve Jesus so you know the passage here we go on the screen I was hungry you fed me Jesus is talking by the way I was thirsty you gave me drink I was homeless you gave me a room I was shivering you gave me clothes I was sick you stopped the visit I was in prison and you came to me now notice the response of the people are there the sheep there go here's what they're going to say Master what are you talking about now these are the people he's just talked about he said I was sick you visited me I was naked you clothed me and and so he said you did this to me and he said Master what do you talk about when did we ever see you hungry and feed you thirsty and give you a drink and when when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you then the king will say I'm telling you a song truth whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored that was me you did it to me Jesus values people so much that when we serve them he takes it personally I run into people all the time they'll say you know John I just don't feel close to God you know I just I just I just haven't connected with God for a while and I end up little Kevin so what do you think I should do oh I said that's so simple my gosh you gave me an easy one hey just go surf people discuss their people because you see every time you serve a person you serve Jesus yeah you want to get close to him you can feed him you clothe him come on this is amazing and what's incredible about the story is when when Jesus is telling this they're looking and said when did we feed you wouldn't we close you you see they were doing some wonderful things but you see they saw the hurting people but they didn't see Jesus this is huge so every day when I serve people it's I if I come up and hug somebody and just give me one encouraging word you know I walk away nice oh just [Music] so you say well you know I haven't been close to Jesus for a while go start how did some people I've got 42 hugs with Jesus today you're still trying to pray my name's John I'm your friend one of the books that I revised about a year ago is developing the leader within you 2.0 and one of the things I love about my writing anymore is I've written to the business and secular audience so long and they know me now so well that I can get by with a lot of stuff it it's just beautiful I could just be salt and light and and it's just it you know I I'm trying to be respectful and value everybody but I just am slipping in all the time these are just the other day I was sort of qat with a secular business company and then they the image they said we're now you're a person of faith how does that affect your leadership oh I said it's everything I said you know everything I have learned about leadership is from the Bible and they're all over it you're kidding oh I said I'll tell you something will surprise you more hey what's that I said everything you know about leadership [Applause] it is oh this is so huge this is Ison you know you're good people you just don't have a clue but you're good people you're good people you're good people I said let me explain it to you I said any of you in the audience give me any leadership principle that you just really love that you just have bought into did you practice just give me the leadership principle and I'll tell you exactly where you can find that in the buy more and they started give me this I so yes that reminds me of the story here and there and then after a while they just kind of look oh they got real quiet no no this is this is incredible I'm talking about connecting to people so in developing in your 2.0 one of the chapters I have in it is is on serving people and and so I put I'm going to give these five things that I really work on and serve it number one is I don't rely on my position or title okay I don't rely on Jesus said you don't want to rely on those things in fact what I when I'm speaking in a convention many times in the green room they'll come in with my bio and they'll say now this is what we're going to introduce you with and a whole deal and I'll say do you really have to do that I see you know so well how do you want standard issue I said well just tell my name's John I'm their friend I'll come out on the stage no I'll talk to you see I learned a long time ago if you're good you don't need an introduction and you can't do something if you're bad a great introduction won't help you I mean I've listened to some speakers I've just thought would could we go back to the introduction it was better and the second thing I'd done is I just choose I choose to believe in people and I choose to not only believe in people I choose I choose to believe in their potential it was my father who gave me the great advice believe in people value people unconditionally love people if you'll just do those three things ja he said you'll have an incredible ministry so when I go to these conventions they always walk me in the back way and you know the crowds out there and they're walking me in the back way taking me the agreement so so in every convention in America I walked through the kitchens most the time so it you know it's just yeah you just show me a kitchen of a convention center and I can tell you where it is I'm just really major on kitchen and they're walking me through the kitchen and they're trying to rush me through and the people are there and I just love to mess them up and I walk real slow and I'm not girl so I introduce myself to them and ask them what they do well they serve or you know when and and I you know and sometimes I'll pull the camera out and say let's take a picture kind of picture and they're just loving it they're loving in the and the people are they're just not loving at all and and I just love messin with just messin with them just you know what I'm doing I'm valuing people I'm just I'm just I'm just trying to be Jesus like just trying to value people I try to see things number three I tried to see things from the perspective of others and number four I create I created an environment of encouragement I try to create an environment of of encouraging it was my father who said John encouragement is the oxygen of the soul such a great man such a great encourager in fact I was just with him a few days ago and he's 97 now and in fact I got a picture of mostly a picture of my dad here's there's dad right there look at it don't he look good 97 doesn't look great there's I got good genes there's hope for me baby I haven't had yeah I mean I hey hey 20 years from now and we'll still be here teaching away Christ fellowship you know what I mean just had a good time that's okay hey and dad and and and so I was I was talking to that we're taking him out to lunch and I said dad as long as I live you're gonna live I mean you may die but you'll still live because I love people like you love people I want to advise people and I want to serve people like you and and so I'm talking in to him about all the things I'm doing and I said just remember just remember this dad you know you're 97 but but but as long as I live you're gonna live because we're gonna serve people and might at just listened all that and had and and he get it when I get that he just races birth dad says hallelujah how are you and earrings hat he's had it he's had two strokes and he's broken six ribs and it just keeps coming back I mean I keep thinking oh okay it just keeps coming back I just think okay well we'll plan the service and just just pops back up in fact I nicknamed you now he loves love's love's this day I I call him now daddy Lazarus and that great I just calmed added as fur as I said that you you know you we just we just put you away for dead you come back up but you just keep coming back you you you just you just you just keep coming it you just keep it coming back and and the fifth thing is it I measure my success on how much value I add to other people Wow so let me tell you a rub a wrap it up with a story here was it my second church and and I was really wanting to grow it and it was really growing and I was spending a lot of time with leaders building leaders training leaders helping them help minister to others he equipping the Saints to do the business work administer that's what I was really doing and it was really going well and so I was very busy he spent a creditable amount of time working with leaders teaching him how to lead people train people so here we go and one day on my schedule I noticed that a person was coming to my office and I didn't know who they were but I knew they weren't on my leader list so my I asked my sister I said who's fella named Brent John says I said who's Brent Johnson and she said well she said you know pastor he's not a leader but she said he really wants to see you for a few moments and so I said he could see you and I wasn't be honest with you I wasn't really happy because I thought okay I'm trying to Train leaders and here comes this guy don't even know who is so he comes into the office and I see I wish I could act like I was saintly but I wasn't saintly okay I you didn't like this I'm just not that good enough you know my dad's a saint when when he goes to have and he'll be right beside Jesus I but I go to heaven I'll be in summit outlet with the satellite somewhere you know what I mean and so I so he he came in he came in and and so I looked at and I said okay how can I help you hey looked at me said well I I didn't come to ask for help okay what do you need he said nothing okay why are you here and it's time here because I'd like to serve you he said I'm not a leader I don't have leadership gifts and I've been for the last two months he said I love what's happening in our church and the last two months I've been asking God how I can serve you what I can do for you that'll help you lift the load and he said I have this idea now and he said I like to throw it by you fee and I said well sure what is he said well he said you have to do errands you're busy and have everything I said yeah he said okay he said I would like to come in at Thursday noon every week and I would like to do all of your errands for you so you don't have to spend your time doing that he said I'll do your dry cleaning I'll go wash her car he said just make the list he said of all the money and he said that way you can spend more time with leaders he said would you would you let me serve you and I'm by this time I'm crying and I said well yeah yeah yeah but before you serve me would you just pray for me to get saved again that's woe-is-me I'm very unclean right are you with me haha we just prayed for me that and and for seven years for seven years every Thursday he'd come and do errands for me it changed my life about adding value to people and serve you because sometimes when people say well I don't know if I could do that I really know if I have those cutting it it listen to me the moment that the moment that week the moment the moment that we really have a desire to add value to other people our whole life will begin to change and so if 2019 is going to be the year that we really want to make it I want to share with you right now five things I do every day and I want you to do them every day and this year and I will promise you I will promise you your life is about two incredibly change and and all five of these things I'm going to give you right now you can do these these are these aren't hard these aren't complicated the everyone a so look at your neighbor your suicide and say them even you can do this okay definitely even you even you can do this okay all right there we go every day number one every day I value people and that's the foundation of everything we're talking about if I don't value people I'll never add value to them I'll manipulate them I'll do all kind of bad things but it all begins with valuing people does that make sense to you sir every day I value people by the way that's Jesus like that's what Jesus whatever you say we want to be christ-like just value people every day I value people number two every day I think of ways to add value to people in other words I'll look at my schedule in the morning I'll say where I'm gonna go who I'm gonna see perhaps and I'll say okay what can I do to add value to those people I think of ways that a people number three every day I look four ways dad valued people so that when I'm with you so when I'm with you I'm looking for something what could I do to fit right through right now what country for them would add value to so every day I value people think of what is that value people look for is that value people number for every day I do things that values people every day in fact at the end of the day the last thing I do every evening is I do a 10-minute inventory of my day and one of the questions I ask is who did I add value to today who did I serve today okay every day every day I value people think of what is that value people look for ways that value people do things that add value to people and number five I encourage others to add value to people I do those five things every day and I'm just telling you if you'll just do those five things every day in 2019 and and every one of you can do that if you'll just do this if you'll just do this those five things every day 2019 will be on believable to you so so you got them written down don't you and on all the campuses you've got it written down because I'm gonna have you all stand and hear and all the campuses I'm gonna have you stand and while you're standing pastors you can come up to the front because when we're done with this little 1 minute exercise it's yours but let's all stand right here and and and what we're going to do is we're gonna do this we're gonna we're going to repeat those five things okay we're gonna repeat those five things that that we're gonna do okay how are you ready huh heading it now I'm gonna eat now I'm gonna find out who took notes see okay are you ready okay every day I value people every day I think of ways to add value to people every day I look for ways to add buying people every day I do things that add value to people and every day I encouraged others to add value to people and if you'll do that 2019 will be your greatest year

Channel: Christ Fellowship Church

Views: 467,440

Rating: 4.828877 out of 5

Keywords: Christ Fellowship, Christ Fellowship Church, Latest Message, Latest Sermon, Pastor Todd Mullins, Pastor Julie Mullins, Dr. John Maxwell, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, Bible teaching, encouragement, freedom, hope, peace, faith, best year ever, how to have the best 2019, how to make the most of 2019, Hillsong Church, Elevation Church, Gateway Church, Church of the Highlands, Lakewood Church, North Point Community Church, Saddleback Church, Life Church, Vous Church

Id: cxE7DCWjOvs

Length: 36min 38sec (2198 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 03 2019